Suspect on loose after holding up south Charlotte gas station with AR-style rifle

A man armed with what appeared to be a short-barreled, AR-style rifle robbed the 7-Eleven on South Boulevard at Sharon Road West at about 5 a.m. last Saturday, according to a report from Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

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The convenience store manager recounts the terrifying moments when he was held at gunpoint by a suspect, who has not been captured.

“I can’t sit still without seeing a vision just running through my eyes,” Delando Harris said. “That’s all I see is this man coming through the door and me taking off running.”

Harris and a co-worker were about to open the convenience store when Harris took food to the back of the store.

Surveillance video shows a white sedan parked in a space near the store’s entrance.

Someone got out of the car, “and I heard somebody tugging on the door and busted open the door,” Harris said.

The man was wearing a green-hooded sweatsuit, a black jacket and a dark glove on his left hand when he pulled the rifle from his pants.

“I saw this guy come in with this big, long gun, and I just (took) off running,” Harris said.

The gunman followed Harris to the back of the store and demanded that he open the safe.

“Give me the money,” Harris recalled. “Give me the money. Give me the money. Give me the money.”

Harris and another associate working at the time couldn’t give the suspect what he wanted.

“Me telling him that it’s a timer and you see him pulling me up to go and open up the register,” Harris said.

There was only about $150 in the register.

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“After he got the money out the register, he left and was, like, ‘I got something for y’all,’” Harris said.

Harris said he was so traumatized that he had to take time off work.

“I, to be honest, don’t want to go back,” Harris said. “Finding a job was kind of difficult or whatever, and I thought I had found something that was going to hold me for a while.”

Harris said he is afraid the man will return.

(Watch below: People in Gastonia to march Saturday pushing for an end to gun violence)